Jez Sherwin | AI & Innovation Design Lead

Jez Sherwin

AI & Innovation Design Lead

Creating bold brands, AI-ready design systems and high-impact innovation strategies.

Hi, I'm Jez Sherwin

//AI & Innovation Design Lead + Founder of Futures Jam

Experienced and passionate designer, innovator, strategist and founder of Futures Jam. For over 20 years I’ve been turning emerging tech into new products, services and business, and transforming teams into innovation superstars, from nearly a decade at The Lab at O2 to leading design at AI start-up Earthena AI.

The following is just a taster of my design and strategy portfolio. To get the full story, you’ll need to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.

Open to full-time and contract roles in London and the South East. jez@futuresjam.com

I've worked with some amazing teams

Brand Design >> VR, Gen AI, ML >> Design Futures

As Design Lead at Earthena AI (2023–2026), a climate decision intelligence start-up whose platform is now QuantEarth™, I turned complex AI opportunities into tangible prototypes and created the brand, logo, website and an AI-ready Figma design system. I trained Claude Design on that system to produce on-brand investor, partner and go-to-market material in hours rather than days, and the dev team used the same system with AI to build the platform’s latest front end. This helped Earthena AI hit its angel and seed-round investment targets.

As Innovation Design Lead at O2 Telefónica’s The Lab, my workshops created £30m+ of business opportunities with leading brands such as McDonald’s and Tesco, and my 5G use-case expeditions with FTSE 100 companies went on to deliver award-winning trials.

I also led the design strategy to resolve data poverty for 500,000+ people in the UK, resulting in the award-winning National Data Bank, which then became O2 Telefónica’s Christmas campaign for two years in a row.

I’m an ambassador for the NWG Innovation Festival and have run five Design Sprints there since 2018. For the 2026 sprint I designed a new combined Futures and Design Sprint framework, with STEEP trend cards created using AI research agents and Figma Make. While at The Lab, I was also a popular speaker at large team and public events such as 5Springs, and a leading proponent of VR for business.

In 2023 I founded Futures Jam to help organisations explore the impact (positive and negative) of potential futures using disruptive challenge workshops. Through Futures Jam I’ve also been contracted by an AI futures consultancy to run AI workshops for leading European and global brands, kick-starting AI agent training and new AI development projects.

Got an innovation, design or strategy challenge, or a role to fill? Let’s chat. jez@futuresjam.com

// Three Pillars of Expertise

Brand + Experience Design Lead

A professionally trained Designer, I deliver revenue-centric design that furthers business ambitions and helps start-ups secure critical investor funding. I create “heart and soul” brands that flow seamlessly into customer experience (CX) and user journey (UX) to build deep emotional connections and authentic, brand values and customer love.

Innovation Design Strategies

I lead high-impact design strategy and cross-functional “tiger teams” to solve complex enterprise challenges. At the O2 Lab, I specialised in using innovation design sprints and strategy workshops to bridge the gap between emerging technology (5G, AI, VR) and commercial viability, consistently delivering measurable ROI and strengthening multi-million pound B2B partnerships.

Workshops for Future Resilience

As a passionate Futurist, I love turbocharging business resilience by running future-casting workshops. Using design futures and strategic foresight, I guide teams through speculative scenarios to explore what might lie ahead. This approach helps organisations prepare for potential future scenarios. It can be used to identify opportunities and develop strategies that seize advantage.

PREV NEXT

Jez Sherwin's Design Sprint is showcased in the O'Reilly Design Sprint Book, A Practical Guidebook for Creating Great Digital Products written by Richard Banfield, C. Todd Lombardo and Trace Wax
Jez Sherwin is an outstanding Experience Design Lead. During my three years as his manager and Head of the Lab, I saw the substantial impact he had across O2. Jez was instrumental in crafting and delivering innovative Design Thinking strategies that challenged and transformed traditional business methods, resulting in exceptional achievements.

Proud to present

//Innovation, design and strategy taster portfolio

Recent AI, innovation and brand work comes first. Under Earlier Brand + Web you’ll find highlights from my Creative Director and Design Lead years at O2, Assertis Digital and Wisdom.co.uk. That craft is still how I prototype and build today.

All Brand + Design Innovation Design Strategies Events + Workshops Earlier Brand + Web

Earthena AI